Reports& surveys

As well as asking our readers about the kit they are using, we wanted to know more about the kind of technology that would make their job more straightforward.

What single piece of kit or technology, we asked, would make your production workflow easier or enhance your production values?

Most of the comments amounted to a plea for easier, faster and more secure data management.

The production industry might have gone filed based, but it is still wrestling with data issues that cost time and money.

There are plenty of calls for a universal codec that would give productions fewer headaches when it comes to post production.

One exec, for example, calls for Sony cameras to record in an Avid/post friendly codec. Another says: “I think for us it is the challenges which come from transcoding MXF files to a codec suitable to cut within FCP. There are solutions but a true universal marrying of commercial codecs and editing software would save a lot of time and heartache.”

Others call for faster transfers with better, cheaper tools. Many say that while equipment costs are coming down, storage and post costs only ever increase. There’s a call for SSD drives at a reasonable price. ‘Another exec asks for “new superfast Thunderbolt 3 to become ubiquitous so we can data wrangle in minutes not hours. Tapeless cameras are great and getting better but the bottleneck now is at the rear getting the vast amounts of data transferred and backed up.”

One producer adds: “I’d love to see a secure way to back up that’s quick and foolproof, can be quickly set up and left running and crucially can deal with material from a number of formats (we often use Go Pros as well as tapeless cameras like the Sony PMW-200 and the Canon C300).

In terms of cameras, there are pleas for cheaper, quality lenses to match the increasing resolution of digital cameras. “A PMW-200 / XF305-sized camera with a truly good television lens (not a stills camera lens) would be a godsend.”

Others call for better viewfinders on cameras, as well as calling for a more ergonomic version of the most popular camera, the C300.

One self shooting director says: “I can just about manage the C300 but it has given me a bad back and I’m now in physio trying to rectify the problem. I want the ease of an XF305 with the quality of a C300.”